A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WRITING POP MUSIC
THE POP THEORY
HANDBOOK
A study in melody, harmony, form, & arrangement
CHRISTOPHER SIU
www.christophersiu.com
THANK YOU!
First of all, I'd like to thank you for downloading this
guide! It means a lot to me that you find value in what I
have to offer, and I'm always making sure to share my
very best with you!
I've actually put together a short pop music survey to
help me understand your needs better, so if you can
take 5 minutes to fill it out, it'll help me know exactly
how to help you in future content! Just click the link
to access it right away.
In this guide, we'll examine the core elements of how
pop music is comprised and structured. We'll discuss
how catchy melodies are written, how chords are
chosen and how progressions work, common rhythms
found in pop, and we'll also touch on some common
arrangement techniques so you can start choosing
which sound you want to use.
Ready to dive in? I sure am. Let's do this!
Melody writing: pg 3 - 9
Harmony and chords: pg 10 - 14
Form: pg 15 - 17
Arrangement: pg 18 - 19
MELODY
Put simply, a melody is a group of notes that
is typically sung. It sits at the front of a piece of
music, and is usually what you remember after
listening to a song multiple times. It can have
lyrics, but doesn't necessarily have to.
The main thing to keep in mind is that the
melody is the most important element in a
piece of music. Why? Because if people can't
remember your melody, they don't remember
your song.
Naturally, some melodies are more
memorable than others, and the most popular
songs are the ones that most people can hum
off the top of their head.
So what makes a melody memorable and
catchy? Let's break it down into 3 elements.
ELEMENT #1: CHORD TONES
I've written a short melody here. It's in classic lead sheet
format, meaning the melody is written out in notes,
while the chord symbols above (C, F, G7) represent what
chords you play at the same time. Feel free to play it out
on your keyboard or instrument of choice!
Now, let's analyze this.
I've circled the chord tones, so you can see the
occasional non-chord tone (the D in bars 1&4) that
bridges the chord tones.
As a general good practice, use chord tones that are
somewhat close to each other, and bridge them with
non-chord tones as you see fit. You'll find your melodies
more grounded and tonally consistent.
ELEMENT #1: CHORD TONES
I've written a short melody here. It's in classic lead sheet
format, meaning the melody is written out in notes,
while the chord symbols above (C, F, G7) represent what
chords you play at the same time. Feel free to play it out
on your keyboard or instrument of choice!
Now, let's analyze this.
I've circled the chord tones, so you can see the
occasional non-chord tone (the D in bars 1&4) that
bridges the chord tones.
As a general good practice, use chord tones that are
somewhat close to each other, and bridge them with
non-chord tones as you see fit.
ELEMENT #2:
GROUPING & REPETITION
So what do we mean when we say
grouping and repetition? First of all, the
human brain is wired to remember certain
ideas in chunks, rather than long-winded
passages.
In everyday human language, we have
punctuation (commas, periods, etc.) that
allow us to separate ideas into manageable
chunks, and digest them one at a time.
Melodies work in the same way. Because
music is so similar to language, it is vital that
we separate our melody into small pieces
and repeat them, allowing us to remember
them easily and replicate them.
Let's use the same short composition as an
example.
ELEMENT #2:
GROUPING & REPETITION
Notice how the melody looks somewhat like a patten?
If you look closely, you can see that the first 2 bars look
very similar to the last 2 bars. Let's outline this:
Notice how the end of bar 2 finishes on a half note?
This allows us to take a quick breath and mentally mark
the 1st half of the phrase before continuing to bars 3 & 4.
You'll also notice that I took the exact same rhythm
from bars 1-2, and replicated them in bars 3-4. You don't
always need to keep the rhythm identical, but the
closer, the better.
So, because I was able to take a breath after 2 bars and
repeat the exact same rhythm in bars 3-4, although bars
3-4 feature different notes and chords, the melody is
memorable because I can think of it in 2 similar pieces.
ELEMENT #3:
RHYTHMIC VARIATION
Speaking of rhythm in melody, it's especially
important to mimic human speech in our melodies,
because singing is literally just applying pitch to
language.
Therefore, if we don't know how to construct our
melodies properly, they can sound robotic, unnatural,
and therefore not catch your listener's attention in a
good way.
Applied practically, most great melodies feature a
mixture or short notes and long notes, with the
longer notes placed on the stronger beats and the
shorter notes on the weaker beats. In addition, if you
have lyrics, strong syllables will typically fall on strong
beats, and vice versa.
I would recommend outlining a basic melody, and
ensure that if you have a few notes of the same value
in a row, you add in some variety with some shorter
note values or a longer note to replace a few of the
shorter ones. Let's check out an example.
ELEMENT #3:
RHYTHMIC VARIATION
Notice that each bar of this melody contains at least 2
different note values. In bar 1, we start off with a
dotted quarter followed by an 8th to finish beat 2, then
2 quarter notes for beats 3 and 4.
Now, if we had this:
See how much more boring 4 quarter notes in a row is?
Not only is it more static, but it's just not as fun to sing
or play.
So to recap, make sure there's some degree of
rhythmic variation within your melody so that it
mimics language more and sounds more natural to
your ear.
HARMONY
Now that we've established how a melody
works, the harmony is the backdrop to the
melody, or the musical material that provides
context.
When we talk about chords and
progressions, this is what harmony is!
Depending on what chords you choose to
play, the music can sound bright, melancholic,
frightening, or anything you want it to be.
Before we dive into chord progressions and
some very common ones, we need to
understand how these chords are actually
created in music.
Let's go over a quick crash course on how
chords work.
HARMONY
In Western music, most songs/pieces are based on a
particular scale. Whether that's C major, G minor, or
anything else, determining our key/scale will give us the
context of our song, and determine what notes we can
or cannot use.
Let's say we've chosen the C major scale!
You can see that the bottom note of each chord is one
of the notes of the scale, so all we do is build up in 3rds
on top of each scale note to determine what chords
can be used in our key of C major!
Notice that the 1, 4, and 5 chords (I, IV, V) are capitalized,
and therefore major chords, while 2, 3, and 6 (ii, iii, vi) are
lowercase (minor). The 7 chord (vii) is diminished in a
major scale, and produces an undesirable sound.
Therefore, we won't use it in everyday pop music.
HARMONY
Now that we understand how basic chords are
constructed, let's examine the function of these 7
chords. Here's a diagram to explain:
In general, what you need to remember is that the 1, 3,
and 6 chords function as what we would call the tonic,
meaning that they feel comfortable, safe, and resolved.
The 2 and 4 chords have a subdominant function,
meaning they hold some tension and want to resolve,
either to one of the tonic chords, or to the dominant
chords.
The 5 and 7 chords have a dominant function, which
contain the most tension. These will always want to
resolve to one of the tonic chords.
HARMONY
Here's another diagram to explain these chord relationships.
As you can see, tonic chords (1, 3, 6) typically want to go
to one of the subdominant chords (2, 4), which in turn
want to go to one of the dominant chords (5, 7).
Now, the 1, 4, and 5 chords (tonic, subdominant,
dominant respectively) are considered the primary
chords of any scale/key. This means that they play the
strongest role in each of their families, and many
songs are built entirely on just these 3 chords.
Let's go over some common chord progressions.
HARMONY
1 4 5 1 (I IV V I) - very common, starts at home and ends
at home
1 6 2 5 1 (I vi ii V I) - the 6 chord leads to the 2, which pulls
to the 5, before resolving back to the 1.
6 4 1 5 (vi IV I V) - the 1 chord is placed in the 3rd position
here, allowing the key to stay more ambiguous until the
1 chord hits on the 3rd bar/beat.
1 5 6 4 (I V vi IV) - more classical. The 4 at the end going
back to the 1 results in what's called a plagal cadence.
2 5 1 (ii V I) - the common jazz progression. Chains of
251's allow a steady stream of tension-resolution.
Keep in mind, these are just some of the most common
chord progressions. The best thing you can do is
experiment and find out what sounds good to your ear.
So the next time you're writing a song and you can't
figure out which chord should come after the 1 chord, try
2-6! You might stumble across something you love.
FORM
Form, or structure, is the layout of a particular
song.
This is particularly important because the way
you lay out your song can determine if a
listener will stick around for the whole thing,
or tune out halfway.
We'll talk about 2 common forms in this guide:
1. The 'pop song' structure
2. The AB form
I use both of these forms on a regular basis,
and for good reason: they are used in songs all
over the world, and they just work. Let's go!
THE 'POP SONG'
STRUCTURE
The 'pop song' in its most basic structure consists of:
Verse - Chorus - Verse - Chorus - Bridge - Chorus
This structure is so common because the main part of
the song (choruses) are repeated multiple times, and
surrounded by slightly lower-energy sections that
compliment them nicely.
The verses are typically used to tell details about the
story, introduce the characters, express certain feelings,
etc.
In contrast, the choruses will usually present one single
message that sums up the whole song's idea, and will
typically contain the melody you walk away humming.
Finally, the bridge gives us an opportunity to change
the tone of the song slightly, present a slightly different
perspective on the story or character, and in turn switch
up the mood of the music as well.
Use this, because it works! Here's an example of one of
my songs using this structure.
THE 'AB' FORM
This form is great, as it only makes of 2 main sections:
the A and B! What I'll typically do is this:
A - B - A - Instrumental - B - A
I really enjoy this form as well because it's simple. After
you present your main section (A), you have a
contrasting section (B) which I think of as developing
the first section, or developing the story.
Following this, the instrumental gives us a little break
from the singing and allows the instruments to shine. I
then like to bring back the contrasting section before
wrapping up with the A section, which typically
contains the hook or main idea.
Here's an example of this form in action!
Ultimately, use whatever form you'd like. The only thing
I'd recommend is to have at least 2 contrasting
sections, and try to keep the length of your song
within 3 minutes if you're aiming for a mainstream
sound and audience.
ARRANGEMENT
Arrangement is the final aspect that I wanted to
cover in this guide. What is arrangement?
Essentially, when you start deciding which
instruments to use in the song, whether it's
guitars, drums, vocals, pianos, etc. and where in
the song they play, this is called arranging the
song.
This is one of my favourite steps in the musicmaking process, because you have so much
variety.
From simply piano and vocals to a full band
playing, or a lush orchestral backing score to a
full-fledged vocal belt, this is where we determine
when the energy rises and dips, and create
emotional moments through instrumentation.
Let me take you through a few examples of
different arrangements.
ARRANGEMENT
Piano and vocals - calm, soothing, intimate.
Ex: When She Loved Me
Guitar, strings, drums, vocals - typical indie
band formation, classic sound. Ex: Photograph
Full orchestra (strings, winds, brass, perc) and
vocals - timeless quality, Ex: Pure Imagination
Electric guitar, drums, keys, vocals - rock band
formation, high energy and tempo. Ex: La La
Big band (horns, drums, piano, double bass) classic big band setup, jazzy sound. Ex: Hay
Burner
As you can see, these are just a few possible
combinations of instruments you can use to build
your arrangements. Most importantly, think of
instruments as colours in your palette. Get to
know and understand them!
YOU'VE MADE IT!
You've made it to the end of this guide! I'd just
like to thank you again for taking the time to
read through this whole thing, and I hope you've
learned a lot in the process.
Again, if you haven't done so yet, please consider
filling out this pop music survey so I know
exactly how to help you even further in your
music making! Your input is extremely valuable,
and will allow me to put together the very best
content I can to make a difference in your life.
Again, thank you for signing up for this guide, and
I'm excited for your journey. Keep making music
my friend!
To your success,
Chris